Houston Grand Opera’s Freud to take top job at the Lyric Opera of Chicago

The next general director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago will be Anthony Freud, current general director of Houston Grand Opera.

Loose lips among the Houston company’s board of directors leaked the appointment a day before the Lyric was set to make the announcement Thursday at a 3 p.m. press conference. A Lyric spokeswoman confirmed the appointment to the Chicago Tribune in a story posted on the Tribune website early Thursday morning.

The London-born Freud, 53, came to Houston in 2006, succeeding David Gockley, who took the top job at San Francisco Opera.

Prior to that, Freud served as general director of Welsh National Opera from 1994-2005.

Freud will be the first Englishman to lead the Lyric Opera as well as the first general director hired from outside the company’s ranks. He will succeed William Mason, who will step down in 2012.